This is a family friendly blog for those who love dolls and toys. The blog is a forum for all apsects of doll history, doll collecting, and doll making. It is the first step in creating a nonprofit doll center to educate the public about the historical role that dolls, the oldest human cultural artifact, play in the the lives of people all over the world. All excerpts are the author's intellectual property and may not be reproduced in any means withoutreceiving permission from the author.

My husband led me to a fantastic Victorian doll house yesterday. After we chatted with a great couple who built it, we came home with VanV...

Sand Baby Castaways

Courtesy, Glenda Rolle the Artist

PM Dolls

Leo Moss

German Dolls

Formerly, Aunt Len's.

Beecher Doll

Graces cover of Lenon Hoyte Auction, Aunt Len's

Foreign Dolls

Pryor Collection

Pryor Doll Collection

In Dec. 1959 Natl. Geographic

Great Book

Edward VI's Doll, 1540

Formerly, Helen Moe Doll Museum

Rare "frozen metal doll" Mannikin Pis

Courtesy, eBay Eilleen, Finder 27

Vintage Japanese Doll Joins our Museum Family

Courtesy, Southern Soldier Antiques

Rare Frozen Charlotte Type

A Pageant of Dolls

By Lesley Gordon, 1948

Hong Kong Lili

Barbie Stamp

An early Vintage Barbie

Bild Lili

Zinc Bodied Rohmer

Caused a suit between Mme. Rohmer and Mlle. Huret

Metal Dydee Baby

17th century Lead Dolls

England

Doll Shaped Mold

cf Dolls and Puppets by von Boehn

Metal Head

Probably Minerva

Black Metal Head

Russian Nesting Doll Charm

18 inch Metal Head

Mlle Bleuette

14th C Munich Clay Doll

Used as Bapitsmal Gifts

Halopeau artists rendering

Toy maker

Restored dolls

L to R: All vinyl mid-60s, Ragggedy Ann, handmade, new arms and clothes, Barbie Type as Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia. Black Felt Dress, white silk flowers and ribbons. She is in one piece, but with a swivel waist that does snap in two!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

On Ocean Mysteries today, a feature on the weta, a very large cricket that lives in New Zealnd and has inhabited the earth tens of millions of years. I must tell my friend Doc V, a wonderful companion, mother, and entymologist. The weta is about 9 inches long or so, one of the largest insects in the world. He was amazing, and another living fossil. These are the "antique" animals and plants that still live and breathe their stories. Would they could talk our language. Then there are those species that can exist for centuries at a time. If we could be Dr. Who and time travel with them, what would they tell us? What did they think when we humans burst on the scene? Could they settle the dispute over evolution? What were Neanderthals really like? When did war start? Where their dragons and vampires; are zombies possible?
I always thought we were simply the authors of our own apocalypse.
Along with these musings, I watched Rick Steves on Tuscany and the Slow Food Movement, which simply means it takes a long but expensively worthwhile time to make the food eaten in the region. Cheese begins with raising the right sheep and goats, milking them, heating the milk, curdling it by hand, skimming the curds and whey, pressing them all into molds and aging them naturally. Wine is made in a similar slow fashion, and food is cooked slowly in brick ovens and over open fires. He features the artichoke festival in this episode. One host was an octogenarian vintner who looked sixty.
Hmmm? Stress and chemicals anyone?
Their take on the truffle snuffing hogs were dogs, and all cattle was free range. Pork and prosciutto came from the native wild boar.
Talk about eating local!
Our skies are clearing here, the clouds and tornadic winds less menacing. We were all gathered Monday in the center of our building, as tornadoes and storms raged over our area. Once again, we were spared, and old wives' tale or not, I bless the river.
We were all lucky this time; our power did not go out.
Emma cat is still ailing, but more alert. I have hope this thyroid condition will be under conrol, but my fierce little Contessa Bathory is no super quiet and too compliant. She doesn't want to play with her cat toys and dolls, not even Marionette Toinette Mouse or Mme. Pomplemousse, the string puppet cat toys. They are her favorites.
We have done our share of burying young friends and classmates, taken suddenly, or by violence, while still too young. One was only 25, and she was shot by a man she feared for a long time. He claimed it was an accident.
She was a veteran, Navy, and was buried, at least with full honors. Seeing her lying in a coffin made life seem very random and futile. I thought of Boethius and his Consolation of Philisophy. I recommend it at times like this.
On a happier note, The Creative Writing Primer by the MWWC, our local writers group, is now 2nd in its type on Amazon. Our Kindle giveaway was yesterday. When it is sold, proceeds go to MWWC. I was a guest blogger yesterday on the MWWC Blog. Will post a link later.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

I was listening to NPR on the way to work M, and they brought up the conceal/carry law controversy going on in Illinois. The announcer likened an assault rifle to a Barbie doll (tm) for a man. There were other analogies to the gun as a type of doll or baby doll, even a rag doll or Raggedy Ann. Hmm. I was struck by some relevant random thoughts. I'd read that a doll, or the Venus figures of Willendorf, were the first cultural artifacts, yet research into paleontology and anthropology revealed that maybe the weapon, e.g., a club was the first human artifact that survived to be left behind.
Also, when I was small, I played with toy guns; I had cowboy outfits, not cowgirl, cap pistols, little ships that fired torpedoes, water guns, and a toy machine gun that rattled. I had two of those; I used to sleep with it, and it had to be replaced. Does anyone have one out there? We still have all kinds of rubber band guns in the house; most belong to my son, but, well.....
I love looking at ivory and jewel inlaid rifles from India in museums. I admire good target shooters, and there are dolls that turn up at gun shows, along with Indian relics and other antiques.
I've only fired one real gun, a glock, and that was part of a fire arms training simulator. We don't have real guns in the house at all. I have never fired at anyone, and don't intend to.
I have no NRA opinions.
Everyone has their passions. Dolls must be popular to many, many people to be included in an analogy about assault rifles and weapons. I'm just saying . . .
Comments? Questions?
Anyone who wants information on my books please contact me directly, or go to Amazon, author central, or 918studio, Google as keyword. I am on Twitter and Facebook as Dr. E's Doll Museum.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

http://webmuseo.com/ws/archives-pb-ysl/app/collection?vc=ePkH4LF7s4E7ifikoE902koJANZFqLWmqak5WvVqCa-q4aoJxhAATHs_eQ$$
These are paper dolls from the famous designers collection. For photos, google The Paper Collectors blog.

Sunday Morning reran the story of Desiree Holt, erotic romance writer, and how she uses Barbie dolls for inspiration for her heroes nad heroines. Jude Deveraux does something similar with dolls.
You never know what use we will find for our treasures.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Anyone who attended this sale May 11, 2013 at Lincoln, NE, may have bought some of the dolls that were part of this collection. The sale was held by Ford and Ford at Ford.net. If you are interested in selling any of the dolls purchased from Dean Betsey's estate, please contact me via this blog. Also, if anyone bought an olive green tweed dress with a matching olive green tweed scarf and you would part with it, also contact me.
I reviewed some real estate this past week for the brick/mortar museum. It is somewhat disheartening. I am looking for the not-too-distant future, but I know that I will need nonprofit fundraisers and sponsors. Heating alone could cost thousands each year, let alone insurance, air conditioning, security, code compliance, etc.
If all else fails, I'll remodel our house. We have too good a collection to just let it sit or slip into oblivion. I hope the beneficiary of the H. Clarke collection will cherish what she has, and consider a public display, just as I hope Shirley Temple will one day again allow her doll collection to be on display as it was at the Stanford Children’s Hospital for so many years where I saw it and even photographed it as a child.
Our book on metal dolls is doing well, and a signing will be announced soon on Facebook. Look for the book to land at Alibris, but you may also buy it from me. The cost is 20.00 plus $5.95 postage. I will sign it. Those who buy it, please leave comments here or on my other blogs. I know there are those who would copy me, and I feel as though I have been in an uneasy and unhealthy race the last two years, but I did get the book out. Perhaps the UFDC will be kinder about reviewing this book. I asked if I could send my bibliography to them gratis for their archives in exchange for a review, and they pretty much accused me of trying to write an ad. I was not. They directed me to their advertising department, costs listed and everything.
This is not what I wanted at all. I thought they would be thrilled as alleged doll scholars to have copy of my book, but apparently I was very wrong. Still, I think this and the book on metal dolls and automatons will be valuable for dealers, libraries, doll collectors, doll makers, and museums alike. I spent over 25 years on the metal dolls, and will bring out other editions. Janet Johl and Luella Hart are my muses in this, as are my dear friends Mary Hillier and R. Lane Herron. Doll Castle News, on the other hand, was amazing at reviewing the Bibliography of Dolls and Toys.
Again, if anyone has information about the Pewter Headed Huret that once belonged to Dorothy Dixon, I would like to know. I'd also like to know if there is a catalog of the sale involving the Dixon/Langley collection.
We have added our share to the museum collection; today I found cast iron fire engines and carriages, 1 dollar each, and a whole set of cast iron racing horses for five dollars, paint perfect. Also, I found two mass produced porcelain dolls for $1.00 each!! One has its box. These are already in museums in Canada, and I saw them there as late as 1989.
I was able to find a miniature doll under a dome made of burrs, twigs and straw flowers. It is very intricate, and a real sculpture. There is a wonderful black wool jointed Puss in Boots with little red boots, and a painting which features him. At this sale I also found a pressed German figurine, probably Meissen, representing a young milk maid gracefully bending at the waist. I was reading Lever's Marie Antoinette, The Last Queen of France and that influenced me. I also bought a small, about 4 inch, bronze Buddha head, professionally mounted. It is probably 18th century.
Doll clothes and smocked baby clothes of the right size seem to find me. I found some gorgeous Silvestri automatons for our next book on the topic. These have special meaning because my husband's grandfather once designed lights for them.
At our Greek Festival, held at my Church, I found a soft sculpture Ethnic doll, one of the female dancers of Crete or Lefkada. She is new to me in the realm of Greek dolls, and very pretty. I refer you to my colleague Maria Argyriades, friend of Mary Hillier, at the Benaki Museum in Athens for Greek dolls. She has written more than one book or article on the subject.
I found a lovely turned china head, with the more common black curls, and two tiny crawling piano babies. I am very fond of small dolls, and I believe our collection at the Museum has one of the most important collections of miniature dolls in the entire world.
My research on Hugo continues. I am looking forward to that conference.
Dolls and automatons pop up often in my Intellectual Property class, and my students enjoy them.